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Fox Co-ops critical to solving global crisis

GUANAJUATO, Mexico (5/29/09)--Cooperatives will play a critical role in creating a stronger economic future, according to Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico and co-president of Centrist Democrat International. Fox will share this message with attendees of the World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) World Credit Union Conference July 26-29 in Barcelona, Spain. He is scheduled to give the keynote address. “It’s time to recompose, re-energize and reshape the global financial system to take on its proper role in serving people,” Fox told WOCCU recently. “We came into the current economic situation after experiencing our best decade in terms of reducing global poverty.” Financial cooperatives, including credit unions, provide the necessary component in serving millions of people, especially the rural poor, and it will be critical to expand those services, he added. “Cooperatives do their best work in helping stabilize communities and creating peaceful environments,” Fox said. “We all have to keep reaching for the best system possible to make sure that every citizen in the world has access to financial services.” Fox helped revitalize Mexico’s “broken” financial system when he became president in 2000. He was inspired by Grameen Bank, which was created by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammed Yunus. He worked to improve Mexico’s credit union system with help from WOCCU and credit union leagues and institutions. “If I could speak to the [Group of 20] nations, my most passionate recommendation would be that, in order to increase growth and prosperity among the poor, cooperative financial systems must be considered at the same levels as the banking system,” Fox said. “But they must be governed with rules and oversight appropriate to their cooperative natures.” For more information, use the link.